Essay

Marc Prensky's "Emerging online life of the digital native" and David Weinberger's "A New World" (this is chapter 1 from a book called "Small Pieces Loosely Joined".
Both present different views of contemporary internet users. In light of your own experiences with new technologies do you think they are accurate portrayals? Discuss why or why not with specific examples.


Marc Prensky’s “Emerging online life of the digital native” (2004) and Dave Weinberger’s “A New World (Chapter one from “Small Pieces Loosely Joined”, 2002) both present different views on contemporary internet users and in light of my own experiences with new technology they both are accurate portrayals. Both texts portray experiences that any internet user would have experienced such as now online norms like shopping on ebay.com, sending emails or chatting (or seeing your children chat) on instant messaging programs.

Anyone who has ever used ebay.com to purchase something online would be able to relate to Weinberger’s portrayal of him trying to find the product that is just right on ebay.com, searching through endless results and trying to judge the seller and the product on very little information “Although the eBay page is formulaic, there's enough context for me to make some tentative judgments” (Weinberger, 2002). This is an accurate portrayal as he explains the uncertainty and quickly formulated judgements we all make when shopping online. Prensky also writes about judgements made online “you get to rate the opposing buyer and the seller on their promptness, honesty, efficiency, etc. Bad apples get weeded out and good ones rise to the top” (Prensky, 2004, 8) which is something all ‘ebay-ers’ would have experienced.
Misinterpretation is something we have without a doubt all experienced on the internet. When we humans communicate with each other we use different tones and facial expressions to express something just as much as what we say. On the internet something that is read can only be taken as what it sounds like. Weinberger mentions a specific example of a man who ended up locked up in a mental ward for saying dangerous and suicidal things to a friend via email. He was expelled from University but later readmitted “when he was able to show that the email was meant as dark humor to a close friend” (Weinberger, 2002).

The internet is the world’s largest information source and there is endless searching and learning available. We have all sat at the computer for hours searching and learning for whatever we desire. Prensky says that searching is the second largest use for the internet after emailing. “Today, when a student is motivated to learn something, they have the tools to go further in their learning than ever before – far beyond their teachers’ ability and knowledge, and far beyond what even adults could have done in the past” (Prensky, 2004, 9). Learning is not restricted to what your teacher knows or what books the library has. It is limitless on the internet. In Nicholas Carrs’s article “Is Google Making us Stupid” he also comments on the world evolving to the internet as a way of life, he remembers “Research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes” (Carr, 2008). These are good portrayals of today’s research reality. Where the word research almost means typing in what you seek on Google.

Online socialising is now a norm for internet users. Prensky portrays online socialising accurately as this new-fangled technology to parents but just the norm to kids “every parent I talk to marvels (and even sometimes brags) at the number of ‘chat windows’ their kids have open simultaneously – often not realizing that this is universal” (Prensky, 2004, 4). Prensky see’s the “dangers of predators and criminals, which are real, but the Natives are not about to let this spoil their party” (Prensky, 2004, 3). Predators and online criminals are a real problem, especially since according to the article “There’s No Hiding On Facebook” (October, 2009) by Alice Marwick in the Guardian that even with privacy settings don’t stop people from seeing private information. Weinberger’s portrayal of online socialising is different but still an accurate portrayal. He refers to the case of Michael Ian Campbell known online as ‘soup81’ who made threatening comments on a chat room, later saying “that he, as a dedicated actor, was trying on a role. He was seeing what it would be like to be his favorite actor, John Malkovich” (Weinberger, 2002). This is an accurate portrayal as it is “atypical of the tens of millions of chats held everyday, it is not at all unusual on the Web for someone to "try on" a personality and to switch personalities from chat room to chat room;” (Weinberger, 2002). Weinberger see’s the internet as a new world and “If we are entering a new world, then we are also becoming new people” (Weinberger, 2002). Prensky see’s online socialising as a place where “Digital Native son or daughter will be finding some or all of their dates online” (Prensky, 2004, 6).Prensky and Weinberger both present different views of contemporary internet users but both are accurate portrayals.

Both Weinberger and Prensky present different views of the contemporary internet user. Weinberger see’s the internet as a place that has its own time and “Time like that can spoil you for the real world” (Weinberger, 2002). He sees it as an overflow of technology that “sent a jolt through our culture, zapping our economy, our ideas about the sharing of creative works, and possibly even institutions such as religion and government” (Weinberger, 2002). He conveys experiences on ebay.com and the possibility of being taken out of context and describes it as a “new world we're just beginning to inhabit” (Weinberger, 2002) and compares it to Europeans first landing in America. Prensky portrayal of the web is different but accurate as well, though similarly he sees it as a new world, except with ‘digital natives’ and ‘digital immigrants’ being the internet savvy and the people who are new to it and trying to learn “Digital Natives are programmed to – and want to – keep up with it. For adults, some new Digital Native behaviors may be worth immediately imitating and adopting” (Prensky, 2004). He also sheds light on experiences with online shopping and online socialising but he describes the internet as a place where “Today norms and behaviors are changing much faster than in the past, because the technology changes rapidly” (Prensky, 2004) and is “new, emerging, different form of life” (Prensky, 2004) that cannot be ignored.
Both present different views of contemporary internet users and n light of my own experiences with new technologies they both provide accurate portrayals.